


Bon O'Lantern

by Dimitri Lisavich (Reiterpallasch)



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: /trash/, Death, Death in a sense, Halloween, Magic, Mild Gore, Thematic Thursday, loss of self
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-21
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-09-01 05:30:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8610601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reiterpallasch/pseuds/Dimitri%20Lisavich
Summary: Every three years on Halloween, a young Zootopian goes missing. This year, Jack Savage of the ZIA is determined to end the trend, once and for all. But, things aren't always as simple as they seem.For the /ztg/ Halloween Thematic Thursday. A little late in getting it over here, but I hope you'll enjoy





	

Jack gave a start, eyes scanning the room for danger with efficiency born of long practice.

'Just the house settling. No cause for alarm. Can't let myself get overly jumpy.'

In truth, the ZIA agent had been on edge ever since he'd started his investigation. There were so many things that simply didn't add up, and Jack didn't like that.

Every three years, for the past 30, like clock work, a young Zootopian went missing on Halloween. The profile was always the same: over 16 but under 20, good, if not outstanding, grades and living or going to school in Savannah Central. Yet the ZPD never seemed able to find the victims, or prevent another the next disappearance.

Then there was the house he now found himself in. The old manor sat dead in the middle of the of where the disappearances took place, but it had never been investigated. In fairness, it had also sat empty for the same amount of time, abandoned after the Ripsaw Killer had murdered the owner, and City Hall never seemed to get around condemning the structure as the hazardous eyesore it was.

'Of course, that would require being able to remember it.' Jack thought ruefully.

And that was the oddest part. Over the past 2 weeks of his personal attempt at ending the Halloween Disappearances once and for all, Jack must have concluded that this place was involved, only to completely forget about it a dozen times... It was as if the house was actively seeking to slip from memory, mad as that sounded. Even during Jack's approach, his eyes had seemed to slide off the property, preferring to look at almost anything else.

As he'd crept through the slightly ajar front gate, and up the weed-choked path to the manor, that inability to focus had been replaced by a growing sense of unease, and a pressure behind his eyes. If Jack had been a rabbit of lesser fortitude, he'd have run off screaming.

Instead, he'd persevered, going inside, past the moldering grandeur of the once stately town home. Despite the almost overwhelming desire to flee, he'd felt sure that the basement held the key to whatever was going on here. His mother would have called it a sixth sense, but she was the sort of threw spilled salt over her should, and read horoscopes religiously. Jack, being of a more practical bent, simply called it instinct.

'Whatever you want to call it, you're stalling. If I'm going to save that girl tonight, I need to keep moving.'

Linda Jamison: female lynx. 19 years old. Small run in with the ZPD 2 years ago over under-aged drinking, but nothing since. Bright future. Reported missing 6 hours ago.

Jack ran the details through his head, taking a deep breath. That's why he was here. No more missing youths. Not if he could help it.

He opened the basement door, and began his descent.

32 steps, sized for a deer, or perhaps a wolf. Not a long walk, even if the space between the steps was slightly uncomfortable for a bunny. Yet it seemed to take forever to Jack.

His limbs were leaden; just moving forward took an extreme effort of will. And the whole time a voice that sounded suspiciously like his own was screaming at him to run, leave, and never think about this place ever again.

The thought of missing, probably dead, youths drove him onward.

Finally, Jack stood at the bottom of the steps, before a second door. As he reached out to grab it, the pressure behind his eyes spiked into an agonizing pain. Jack lurched, eyes squeezed tightly shut, and focused on his breathing. After a few moments, he was able to lunge forward, grabbing the handle and stumbling through the door in a single, albeit jerky, motion.

As though passing through that portal marked some great transition, Jack felt the pressure and the unease of the past few hours vanish, leaving him calm, collected, and able to fully take in his surrounding.

It couldn't have come at a worse time.

The room he now found himself standing in was a macabre charnel house, 9 bodies in various states of decay strung up on the concrete walls. In the middle, a black iron cauldron sat above an fire pit, where flame crackled in an incongruously merry manner. Along the back wall, a table piled with bits and bobs of dried herbs, measuring tools, a mortar and pestle...and the mortal remains of Linda Jamison.

What Jack almost mistook for an 11th corpse was ever so carefully measuring out a thimbleful of powdered something, dumping it into the cauldron. It may have been a wolf, or perhaps a hyena. It was difficult to say, giving its ragged, almost skeletal state.

As it caught sight of him, the creature chuckled “I'm afraid you're a bit too late, deary. I've already got all the ingredients I need for a youth potion from the young lady, and you're a rather too old in any case. Although a rabbit could make a good foundation for a sterility hex..” The thing's voice like rusted nails and rotting flesh, buzzing hornets and maggots sliding over his brain...

The sound of the door slamming shut behind him snapped Jack out of his shocked daze. Quickly, he drew his tranq gun and leveled it at the creature!

“Jack Savage, Special Agent of the ZIA! You're under arrest on the suspected kidnapping and murder of 10 mammals over the past 30 years! Come along quietly, and you'll be remitted to ZPD custody. Resist, and I will open fire. Given your physical state, the dosage of this gun may well be lethal!”

The wight simply laughed again, moving towards him at an unhurried pace “You think to turn me over to your friends in the watch? The could not stop me in past ages, why should they have greater success now?”

Thunk! Went the dart, hitting the thing square in the chest.

Nothing happened. It didn't fall, it didn't slow. It didn't even acknowledge what Jack had done, simply gliding forward at that same slow clip.

Another mammal may have taken a second shot. Jack had always held that repeating a failed action in hopes of a different result was foolish in the extreme. Instead he looked at the cauldron; whatever was inside was both important to the thing, and very precise, to go by how carefully it had been measuring earlier.

Jack tossed his tranq gun, knowing it to be a gamble. One that paid off as the beast screeched and rushed to the cauldron.

Jack was already in motion, a running leap sending him into it's back. Jack didn't weight much, but neither did the motley collection of skin and bones. And Jack had moment on his side.

Watching the creature tip over the rim and into the pot was immensely satisfying. The cauldron's subsequent rumbling and bubbling less so.

Jack raced back to the door, only to find it had locked when it swung shut. “Picks, picks...come on Jack old boy, you've got a set here somewhere”

The scream of tortured metal, and a thunderous cracking noise stopped that thought in it's tracks. Jack turned, and saw a wave of multicolored liquid racing towards him.

'At least I managed to avenge those kids, and put an end to this madness'

And Jack Savage knew no more.

* * * * *

Bonnie Hopps woke with a start, eyes scanning the room for danger with efficiency born of long practice.

'Danger? Don't be a silly bun, Bon. You're in your own bed, with Stu.' Shaking her head, Bonnie slid to the floor with a stealth few would have suspected her to posse.

Every year, on Halloween, she dreamed the same dream. A bunny in a suite, a dead girl, a creepy house and some...thing...in the basement. She never could seem to remember the details, though...

She crept passed the trophy case Stu had insisted on putting up. Bonnie never really cared for the marksbunship awards she'd earned years ago, but Stu was always happy to celebrate his family's accomplishments. And had pointed out, quite correctly, that the prize money from those contests had helped them out immensely when they were just starting the farm.

Reaching the bathroom, Bonnie splashed some water into her eyes, and took along drink of water. Keen sense, innate stealth, excellent aim; her parents had joked that she should be a spy. Of course, Bonnie had met Stu instead... and really, a bunny spy? What a silly idea.

'Says the mother of the ZPD's first rabbit officer!' Thinking of Judy, Bonnie smiled. She mimicked one of her daughter's “superbunny” posses and with a barely perceptible twinkle of cerulean in her purple eyes said “Bonnie Hopps, international bun of mystery.”

She broke down laughing almost immediately. “Really Bonnie my girl, you're a bit too old for that now, aren't you? Oh! But I do have gramgram's old typewriter laying around here somewhere. Judy is always asking us to try new things whenever she visits. Her mother the novelist, wouldn't that be a surprise!”

With the last of her dream safely banished from her mind, Bonnie turned to go back to bed; the bathroom light throwing shadowy stripes across her cheeks in the instant before she shut it off.

“Hmm. Jack Savage is a good name for a spy. Oh, and I should give him a fox for a partner, just like that Nick boy Judy likes!” Smiling to herself, Bonnie crawled back into bed, and dreamed of more pleasant things than a lost past for the rest of the night.

 

  
~fin~


End file.
